the first time the subject was presented to me was at the house of a friend of
mine named W. H. Green, whose father, at a dinner of his relations, the Barings,
asked him if he ever read anything. The book he chose was Bulwer's romance,
_Pelham_. The latter he read, and was highly gratified with its merits. Having
become the possessor of this treasure, he determined to attempt a similar
attempt on his own account. He therefore wrote out a dramatic _scena_, and went
to the theatre to ask me for an introduction to Messrs. Sheridan and the Hon.
Mr.Norton, whose company he then represented in the _Stranger_--a piece which
came out at Drury Lane in the summer of 1822. The introduction,however, was not
so readily obtained as he expected; the manager objected to the character of
"Emilius," and the actor who supported him said that it would have been a great
advantage to have given him his choice. On these representations Mr. Green made
up his mind to write a play on the principles of Bulwer's _Pelham_; and, after
an interval of about three months, produced his play, _The Adventures of Major
de la Motte_. The acting of these two dramas was about all he had to bestow; the
public, however, was abundantly satisfied with one of them,for it brought into
general notice a very clever young man, at the then head of our profession,
Edmund Kean; and the public were by no means displeased with the style of the
acting of the other in which his brother-in-law, Mr. Green, was
conspicuous.These plays had been represented to Mr. Green, at whose suggestion
the tragedy written for him had been rejected, when I met him unexpectedly at
the house of a friend, a few days after the conclusion of these performances. I
was surprised at the warmth he manifested when I told him whom I had seen, of my
own failure in the _Stranger_ case, and in his subsequent successes. He was
delighted with the latter, but told me he feared the former had not been
altogether satisfactory from a literary point of view.I was delighted however,
when I read the play with him, he said, and immediately became enthusiastic in
praise of the performance. He urged me the more to undertake more of such parts
as Mr. Kean had so well filled, and even offered to give me two or three hundred
pounds for the parts, in addition to any little salary I might think I should
derive from the performance. I did not wait for his proposals to go further, but
at once commenced writing out, preparatory to acting, the parts he had himself
assigned to me. This step was not one that at first met with any opposition on
the part of the actors of the company, but afterwards, as they found reasons to
dislike the idea of my acting in any but their favourite characters, the affair
took so serious a turn that the manager felt called on to interfere to prevent
its being carried into effect. After some altercation with him,the matter was
brought to a compromise, by the agreement that I,instead of retaining the
character, was to give up the play to the company, at their own option, and that
Mr. Kean was to assume the part of Sir Giles Overreach.When this piece was
finished, and given to be acted at Drury Lane Theatre, by the company then in
London, I was very nearly leaving it without seeing it, but I felt the
importance of a rehearsal, so that the actors might be more ready to read it
afterwards. Mr. Kean,however, who for some time had taken the play by way of a
pattern,determined to proceed with it to the other theatres, and with a view to
making it perfectly familiar, made me sit down with him to receive and read over
the parts, that he might put down in my notes what alterations he thought
advisable. It was arranged that he and Mr. Green should make their first
appearance, with Mr. Kean to second him in Sir Giles Overreach. During the
progress of the rehearsal, Mr.Kean requested Mr. Green to sit down on a chair I
had borrowed to write down the character with, and to read it over in a distinct
voice. It was a trying moment for two men like them, to start so diametrically
opposite to each other in their parts. In the part of Sir Giles, Mr.Green was
very nearly equal to Mr. Kean, having a good deal of natural power. It was as a
_listener_ that Mr. Green won Mr. Kean's heart. When,therefore, Sir Giles made
one of the speeches which had so excited my admiration at Drury Lane, Mr. Green
listened with all the interest of a_listener_, but at the same time with a
certain sarcastic curl of his lip. When he came to another, however, he was
altogether the _listener_of the play, and his part was the _listener_ in this
instance with a spice of the _speaker_.It was a difficult task to Mr. Kean to
play a part with so much character in it; and in his hands I have seen Mr. Green
put on a _whole host_ of characters in a minute. It used to be said of Mr.
Kean's acting,that it was a _whole library_ of characters, and to hear him read
a part over, was, for me, to begin with learning the scene to read it with him,
and then the whole of it in its several parts. In the days of my youth, his
reading was, at times, as interesting to me as any story-telling I ever listened
to, and I never heard his readings through without feeling highly satisfied with
myself for being an attentive listener to him. Mr. Kean never read a part over
with me; indeed, as far as my memory serves me, he did not utter to me a single
part of it aloud. After the first night it was not necessary that we should
agree on the parts of Sir Giles. There the _listener_ (whose part, in this one
instance, was not a difficult one to him) was more than a match for Mr. Kean;
but from this time, and for several nights afterwards, the latter was in the
habit of reading the part over in his usual manner, I being generally present.
During this period, I was not so attentive as I otherwise should have been to
Mr. Kean's readings; but I was so fascinated with them, that I never for an
instant doubted that they afforded me the most intense enjoyment. If I was
particularly fond of any scene, I used on more than one occasion to read it half
aloud to the play-acting manager; and, as I could never overcome what was then
in my voice a defect of hearing, I was frequently rewarded by hearing the tones
of Mr. Kean's voice, with the accents I have just mentioned, coming from the
other end of the theatre, when no person seemed to know any thing of its
origin.Mr. Kean had a much longer and more difficult task than his brother in
getting a play played, for Mr. Kean, after a certain stage success,was forced to
give up everything as hopeless. In the autumn of 1847, he was engaged again to
play for Messrs. Oxberry in the "Widow Married," which he did on the 16th of
January, 1848; but that season, with the exception of one evening, was one of
great fatigue to him. He gave up the stage for this engagement, as he said, to
"have his hair cut," and this I believe he did, his grey locks being then
closely clipped. In Mr. Kean's account of the following circumstances, he speaks
of"this hair cutting" being a scene to which he refers on one occasion,saying,
"If it had been my hair I should have got more satisfaction from my barber's art
than from my razor;" and he mentions the following remark made in allusion to
the incident:--"'How's this?' says Mr.Kean, as soon as the operation was over;
'this is a great loss.' 'Oh!yes, sir,' says the fellow; 'I know how little money
I get for cutting a gentleman's hair; but I can cut your wig with ease; but your
hair's a credit to the shop.'" Mr. Kean himself seems to have been aware that he
was no longer so efficient in managing the part of a hero, as in his youth, and
that there were times when he was really unable even to represent the characters
suited to his talents. So it came to pass that the part of Sir Giles was handed
over to Mr. Kean's brother, who gave up the other four. It may be imagined that
the task of acting Sir Giles had not in this case been very light.While acting
the part of that character he had to play the part of_Edmund_ to Mr. Kean's
father, who had given me permission to give his story as I find it in Mr. Kean's
manuscript:--"I had the honour of acting on one occasion at Drury-lane with Mr.
Kean, who had the honour to be a pupil of Mr. Kean's, at Colebrook Street,
Covent Garden,and the theatre had been closed in consequence of the non-
performance of my _debutante_. I had the honour of appearing in my professional
character; my name was made known to the audience; the manager sent for me and
told me to go to the box which had been reserved for me the night before. I saw
the box door open, and I entered it in triumph, and I found the occupants of it
the great Mr. Kean and Miss O'Neil. No words can convey to your readers any idea
of the triumph that was given to me. They introduced me to Mr. Kean, and the
manager sent me to the theatre in the evening, and the curtain was drawn up on
the last act of 'The Hunchback,' when Mr. Kean and Miss O'Neil made their
_debut_on the stage. They were not long in creating a sensation. There were
murmurs of applause that could be but one opinion as to their powers.The moment
Mr. Kean had finished, there were cries of 'Mr. Smith! Mr.Smith!' and it was
quite evident that he had been acting in his own name,and not in that of Mr.
Kean. The actor's name was pronounced in a loud, decided tone, not the faint,
piping cry of his brother-in-law.The effect was extraordinary; from this moment
I was sure of Mr. Kean and his sister, and ever since has been my pride and my
reward. Of course, if I had to be a manager myself, I should make it my business
to look immediately into the merits of each one of these performers. I say that
to my mind, the two were not equal for the purpose of the piece.Edmund Kean was
the more powerful. There was a nervous motion, and a manner altogether superior
to Mr. Kean, a great deal more majestic and impressive. He spoke more and
better. Mr. Kean spoke in a louder, and, in my opinion at least, a better tone
than the other; it was less that of an effeminate, than that of a manly
actor."In the following letter to my father, I find Mr. Kean speaking of
himself, in the _roles_ of Sir Giles Overreach in the _Courier_ and Sir Giles
Overreach in the _Winter's Tale_, as follows: "At the close of the first act of
the _Winter's Tale_, I entered into conversation with an acquaintance of mine.
When I first saw him, in one of the boxes, it was evident that I was going to do
him an injustice. I asked him to come down with me to the stage-door. He was
absent at the moment, being occupied with an elderly lady, who was on her way to
her carriage. I was not, however, so much astonished at his non-attendance, as
was his mother; and I had learned, in the course of my professional
acquaintance, that this venerable lady did not often alight from her carriage to
walk about behind the scenes with her son. With her, he had been in the habit of
making short, hurried visits, and with her, I could easily discern, that the
mother had been in the habit of making short visits, and with her, the daughter
had been in the habit of making short visits, and that both equally were in the
habit of having short visits made to them."Such was Mr. Kean's manner, when he
was at Exeter, in the year 1817; so changed by his residence in Paris, that the
man who was the most accustomed actor of the two, now appeared the least so.
Before I speak further of his first acting in London, I will give a sketch of
his character on the stage, as it was at the opening of the theatre in 1809,at
the Lyceum, in that city, on the 25th of January.A great actor, I have heard, in
his more matured hours, can take pleasure in criticising the young efforts of
his actors; and if any one doubts my statement, let him try the experiment. I
myself do not think such an occupation necessary; but when it _is_ required,
when no actor can perform his parts adequately, I should not be a little
astonished if, in the character of Mr. Kean, he should not say with the poet:--
"What, I think, I do,My actor can't tell;Perhaps I shall be An able man after
all."But Mr. Kean's character on the stage at that time, consisted more in his
acting than in anything else. He was the first manager who tried to put the best
in the best place. He called his actors together,and said, "Now there must be no
mistake about you, my hearties!" and then he would begin his remarks in this
fashion: "This play is not for you, but for Mrs. Siddons; it is meant to show
how the young men of this country must act. Do not let us, poor actors, be
afraid of being laughed at and made to speak to a stupid, noisy town audience.
They_are_ stupid, certainly; but they always laugh at you, and make a fool of
you." It was this kind of thing that made Mr. Kean so admired,even in the midst
of his success at Covent Garden; but the impression made upon us by his acting
during Mr. Kemble's performances,when compared with that of Mr. Kean, is very
different. At first, I thought him more agreeable; then I thought him more
impressive, as he became better acquainted with the ways of the stage.We have
here, on his arrival from Paris, the following letter from Mr. Kean:--(Received
from Mr. Kean, on the 11th of December, 1812.)"MY DEAR SIR,"The theatre does not
open until to-morrow evening, as I am anxious that it should be ready for the
public when I return. It is the last public play in
